Pages tagged "guy barnett"

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) today joined calls for members of communities, churches and families to express their support for marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Speaking in Parliament last night, Tasmanian Liberal Senator Guy Barnett threw out a “clarion call” for communities across the nation to let their local MPs know of their support for marriage and the belief that it “deserves respect and protection”.

His call for action followed on from last week’s passing of a Greens’ motion for MPs to seek constituents’ views on same-sex marriage.

Senator Barnett told Parliament last night that: “What is being proposed by proponents of same-sex marriage is not mere finetuning of the definition of marriage but a full-on assault on one of its key elements: namely, that it involves the union of a man and a woman. To change the definition of marriage to encompass a union between any two persons would be effectively to abolish marriage in Australian law by replacing it with something quite different and alien.” Please click here to read the full text.

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace supported Senator Barnett’s call and reiterated the need to “protect the model of marriage between a man and a woman which is a universal cultural mainstay proven over millennia”.

“The Greens and the gay lobby have been very active in their campaign to undermine long-held concepts of marriage and family which are central to the fabric of our society and provide stability for children,” Mr Wallace said.

“It is important that MPs hear from Australians who value marriage and do not wish to see it re-defined.

“In some other countries where same-sex marriage has been legalised, such as Canada, it has then led to pressure for polygamous relationships to be legalised. Once the meaning of marriage is changed who knows where it will lead,” he said.

“It is disappointing that radical Greens’ fringe agendas have dominated the final weeks of Parliament.”

In an important step forward in fixing Australia’s broken classification system, the Senate has voted to conduct an inquiry into the National Classification Scheme for film, literature and other forms of media.

Liberal Senator Guy Barnett yesterday successfully moved a motion which will see the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee conduct an inquiry into the Australian film and literature classification scheme, reporting back by June 30 next year.

The inquiry is to particularly focus on issues such as: the enforcement system; the effectiveness of the scheme in preventing the sexualisation of children; the classification and impact of R18+ and X18+ films; the possibility of including outdoor advertising (such as billboards) in the classification scheme; the application of the scheme to music videos; and the effectiveness of the scheme in dealing with new technologies and new media. Please click here to read Senator Barnett’s media release and the full wording of his notice of motion.

ACL has been calling for a comprehensive review of the classification system for years and strongly welcomes the Senate inquiry.

The current system is clearly not working and, among other things, has led to a toxic media culture which is having a devastating impact on vulnerable young people. As they grow up they are being bombarded with sexual messages via everything from billboards to films to music videos.

Among other failings in the current classification system, there has also been clear evidence to show that the system is incapable of preventing unclassified pornography from becoming easily available for sale in stores across Australia – with call-in notices being unenforced.

In the lead up to the recent Federal election, ACL sought commitments from both Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott for a comprehensive review of Australia’s media environment, with both leaders voicing their concerns about the sexualisation of children in the media. Ms Gillard reaffirmed her support for ISP filtering and Mr Abbott specifically acknowledged the need for another review of the media classification system “tasked with a way to ensure proper community standards apply to all media”.

ACL hopes that the Senate Committee will be able thoroughly investigate the wide array of concerning classification issues and that its recommendations will receive bipartisan support – providing a basis for establishing an effective classification system across all media.

Evidence presented at this week’s Senate Estimates hearings demonstrate that the National Classification Scheme is incapable of preventing unclassified pornography from becoming easily available for sale in stores across Australia.

On Monday, under questioning from Tasmanian Liberal Senator Guy Barnett, Director of the Classification Board Donald McDonald again outlined how call in notices for the vast majority of adult films and publications are simply ignored by distributors.

The Classification Board issues call in notices for adult publications and films that should be classified, but according to the Classification Board’s Annual Report for 2009/10, of the 49 publications called in for classification, not one response was received.

Mr McDonald also revealed that ‘just a handful of films’ were compliant with call in notices, despite 444 such notices being issued in 2009/10.

Further highlighting the failure of the classification system to filter out inappropriate content, an officer of the Attorney-General’s Department said that once a distributor is referred to law enforcement agencies, “they are under no obligation under the scheme to provide us with any information about what they then do with that information”.

It seems that under our flawed classification system decisions are made but never followed up, allowing distributors of adult material to easily flaunt the rules without fear of recrimination.

To read the relevant Senate Estimates transcript, click here. A related media release issued by Senator Barnett is available here.

Meanwhile the NSW Labor Government, along with the Coalition and Christian Independents in the Upper House, are to be congratulated for passing a bill to crack down on the sale of illegal pornography in the state.

The bill forces sellers of pornography to pay fees to have their material formally classified when police take a prosecution against them.

Answers to questions asked in parliamentary estimates have revealed the extent of complications for women who use the drug RU486 to abort their children, and the rapid take-up of this method of pregnancy termination.

Data released by the Therapeutic Goods Administration to Tasmanian Liberal Senator Guy Barnett show use of RU486 soared in the second half of last year after a national chain of day clinics was licensed to use it. Terminations using RU486 rose from none to 1154 between July and December in New South Wales, four to 323 in Queensland, and 42 to 412 in Victoria.

The data also reveal that in 14 Australian cases the drug, also known as mifepristone and mostly used with another drug, misoprostol, failed, and the termination had to be completed surgically. An additional 110 cases with “adverse effects” were reported. Reported complications involved retention of placenta remains and other “products of conception”.

In the four years since the contentious conscience vote in the Federal Parliament to remove the Health Minister’s ability to override the importation of RU486, more than 3000 abortions have been performed in Australia using the drug.

Obstetrician Caroline de Costa, who was prominent in the campaign to allow the use of RU486 in Australia, naturally downplayed the number of RU486 abortion complications, saying it was consistent with overseas figures.

The TGA data show that, as expressed during the heated parliamentary debate over RU486, it is not a safe option for women, and it puts at greater risk the lives of society’s most vulnerable and innocent people – its unborn.